The murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man, in Laramie, Wyo., in October 1998 became national news when his death sparked the creation of hate-crime legislation across the country.

Shepard’s killing and the reaction to it became the topic of two plays, “The Laramie Project” and its 2009 sequel, “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later.” Both dramas came out of interviews conducted in Laramie by members of a group called the Tectonic Theater Project, which wanted to spur dialogue about the murder itself and about prejudice of all types.

Theater Siena presents “The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later” on Thursday, Feb. 6; Friday, Feb. 7; and Saturday, Feb. 8 in the Stubnitz Lab Theater in the Performing Arts Center, Siena Heights University. All performances are at 8 p.m. and will be followed by “talk-back” forums.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for students and senior citizens. Seating is limited. For ticket information, call 264-7890.

The production will be the final one directed by longtime SHU theater faculty member and administrator Trudy McSorley, who also directed the first “Laramie Project” play for Theater Siena in 2003.

Why do this particular play?

“Because as part of a university community, our students need to be exposed to issues that concern us,” she said. The play is “not just about gays, but about how do we treat people who are different than us?”

And, she said, theater provides an opportunity for people to “break open” difficult issues and talk about them.

McSorley said that when Theater Siena staged the original “Laramie Project,” it gave everyone involved a “comfort zone” to address issues of respect and acceptance. “It wasn’t about (sexual) preference or skin color or accent,” she said.

And she thinks that ending her lengthy directing career with the sequel is fitting, because one of her two theatrical passions — the other being teaching children’s theater — is “doing theater that makes people think about what’s going on.”

“In a way, for me this really completes the circle,” she said. “The first play opened the discussion, (and) this one looks at reconciliation. … It can help us change the way we look at things. It’s ‘how do I start to open my mind to how Jesus challenges us to think in the Gospels?’ ”

Her young cast members are getting their acting skills stretched by the fact that the nine of them play 22 different characters, as well as by the intimate Lab Theater setting that puts the audience very close to the action. But they are also being stretched personally by the story itself.

Page 2 of 2 - “I’ve had great conversations with the cast in our talkbacks when I’m giving notes after rehearsals,” McSorley said. And she hopes that people who come to see the play are similarly challenged to think about other people — and themselves — differently.

“What I hope happens is that we open up the conversation more and that we learn to love and care about each other,” she said.

People interested in learning more about the play and the incident that sparked it can find a number of resources at tinyurl.com/Laramieinfo.